The truth about healthcare in Canada

Last week, one of my dearest friends went for a colonoscopy, and last month she had a mammogram and pap smear. Sister went for her physical last month and had an MRI breast exam in January. Neither of them saw a bill for any of that and never will. That is what it is to live in Canada. You book your appointment and show up. My mom had to go to the emergency room, where people complained of waiting for more than 6 hours to have splinters and coughs looked at. My mom was there about a fall that may have put pressure on her brain. She didn’t wait for more than 20 minutes. It’s like I said in one of my last blogs about healthcare in Canada, “How does healthcare play into the next presidential election?” It works.

Michael Moore has ignited the discussion about health care, and I couldn’t be more delighted. His movie “Sicko” is about the American healthcare system and includes his findings on the Canadian and Cuban healthcare system in comparison. I don’t know much about the Cuban healthcare system; I know they suffer in many ways in Cuba so if they are at the very least getting adequate healthcare, I am happy to know that. I do, however, know a great deal about the Canadian healthcare system, having benefited from it for most of my life. You can check that “How does” blog I mentioned for statistics.

The truth is that healthcare for people in Ontario is fabulous. In 43 years of living there, I never saw a doctor or hospital bill. I had yearly physical exams, two babies and surgery. One son was in the emergency room twice for stitches, with under an hour wait both times. I had to take my son for an X-ray on his knee before he left for summer camp one year, and the doctor called me at home by 4:00 p.m. that same day, to tell me it wasn’t bone cancer, after a second opinion. I didn’t pay for that either. Here in Michigan, in the middle of my chemotherapy, my husband was laid off and I had to pay $1,100 a month for COBRA. Thankfully I could continue working and my husband received unemployment. That’s a lot of stress for a newly married couple. Once again I have the privilege of COBRA, now for the reduced rate of $980. I am making the switch to a less costly insurance with a 30 percent co-pay and a 6-month waiting period for my pre-existing breast cancer condition.

I first learned how the Americans do it in my early 20s. Friends came to visit who were expecting a baby and told us how every dollar they could save was going into a fund to pay the hospital for the delivery because they couldn’t afford healthcare. I heard how other friends couldn’t choose the doctors they wanted because they belonged to an HMO. We were stunned in Canada that a civilized nation treated their citizens this way. I have since learned that people in the U.S. have many options, but only if you are employed by a big company or have lots of money. Why Americans keep buying into the rhetoric that America has the best healthcare is the greatest puzzle. It’s good, but only if you can afford it or give up other things to pay for it.

“Why don’t you go back to Canada?” you might ask. Well, for me that is always an option. How about you?

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kathy-Ellen Kups, RN

Kathy-Ellen is a Registered Nurse living in Michigan. In 2003, Kathy-Ellen was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer. She was cancer-free from April 2004 until December of 2013 when it was discovered that...read more

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